Millionaire Jeeter hires Marlowe to bribe fortune-hunter Harriet Huntress into leaving his adopted son Gerald alone.

Marlowe discovers forgery expert Arbogast shot dead in his office while investigating Gerald's gambling debts.

Marlowe finds Gerald's body hidden in a bedroom closet inside Harriet's apartment.

Marlowe reveals Jeeter as the mastermind; George tries to shoot Marlowe but Harriet wounds him; Jeeter suffers a stroke.

Marlowe testifies before a Grand Jury about witnessing lobbyist Tinnen murder city councilman Shannon.

Former casino owner Lou Harger hires Marlowe as bodyguard for his plan to exploit a rigged roulette wheel at Canales's casino.

Harger and his date Miss Glenn win twenty-two thousand dollars at Canales's casino using the rigged wheel.

Political fixer Frank Dorr offers Marlowe a large bribe to refuse his upcoming testimony against Tinnen.

Canales bursts into Dorr's home, accuses him of framing him for Harger's murder, and shoots Dorr dead.

Kathy Horne asks Marlowe to help recover the stolen Leander pearls and split the insurance company's reward.

Madder drugs Marlowe's whiskey and Carol Donovan knocks him unconscious, giving themselves a head start toward Sype.

Mrs. Sype shoots Carol, Madder kills Sype, and Marlowe shoots Madder in the final confrontation at Sype's house.

Marlowe finds the stolen Leander pearls sewn inside two Chinese Moor goldfish in Sype's aquarium.

Marlowe witnesses ex-con Al Tessilore shoot and kill Waldo Ratigan inside a neighborhood bar.

Marlowe drops Lola Barsaly's original pearl necklace into the ocean to protect her from knowing the pearls were fake.

Philip Marlowe takes on four separate cases in 1930s Los Angeles, each beginning as a simple job that quickly escalates into murder. In the first, a millionaire secretly engineers the death of his own stepson for an inheritance, using Marlowe as an unwitting cover. The second case drags Marlowe into political corruption after a casino sting ends in a murder and a frame-up orchestrated by a powerful fixer. The third sends him on a cross-country chase for stolen pearls hidden in a place no one would expect to look. The fourth begins with a chance witness to a bar shooting that slowly unravels a double blackmail scheme and a romance built entirely on lies. Across all four stories, Marlowe uncovers the truth despite being drugged, beaten, and framed, and consistently refuses to look away from what is right.

The headline crimes, hires, and resolutions across all four Marlowe cases.

Gerald arrives at Harriet's apartment and punches Marlowe unconscious for offering his girlfriend a bribe.

Two thugs named Waxnose and Frisky assault Marlowe at his apartment to warn him off the Jeeter case.

Jeeter's chauffeur George shoots Frisky dead during a roadside ambush near the Jeeter mansion.

Detectives Finlayson and Sebold arrive at Marlowe's flat to question him about Frisky's death.

George is arrested and confesses only to killing Gerald in a jealous quarrel, shielding Jeeter from prosecution.

D.A. Fenweather warns Marlowe to watch his back after his Grand Jury testimony about Shannon's murder.

Marlowe is knocked unconscious by an unseen attacker in the parking lot outside Canales's casino.

Miss Glenn arrives at Marlowe's office claiming Canales's men shot Harger the night before at her apartment.

Marlowe visits the morgue and confirms Harger was shot with his own stolen gun, proving a frame-up.

Marlowe and investigator Bernie Ohls arrive at cabbie Tom Sneyd's home in the middle of a gunfight with Dorr's thugs.

Kathy Horne tells Marlowe about cocaine addict Peeler Mardo's knowledge of pearl thief Wally Sype's hiding place.

After Carol shoots Sunset dead, Marlowe locks her in a bathroom and drives alone to find Sype in Westport.

Marlowe encounters Lola Barsaly in his apartment building's hallway and persuades her to come inside and talk.

Marlowe searches Waldo's apartment and finds a dead body and a set of car keys belonging to Eugénie Kolchenko.

Copernik and Ybarra search Marlowe's apartment and find Lola's hidden clothing along with a strand of fake pearls.

Behind each of Marlowe's headline cases lies a chain of encounters, confrontations, and discoveries that push the investigations forward in unexpected directions. In the Jeeter case, Marlowe is beaten, ambushed on a dark road, and interrogated by police before he can piece together the truth. The Harger murder investigation is complicated by a carefully staged crime scene, a rigged cover story from Miss Glenn, and a dangerous shootout at a cabbie's home. The pearl hunt takes Marlowe from a tortured informant to a violent coastal showdown before he can close the case. In the final story, a chance hallway meeting with Lola Barsaly opens a trail of blackmail, hidden bodies, and buried evidence that draws in two corrupt detectives. Together, these secondary moments reveal the grinding investigative work that underlies every one of Marlowe's victories.

The ambushes, witnesses, and discoveries that shaped each investigation.

Harriet tells Marlowe she cannot be bribed because Jeeter destroyed her family's fortune and she wants revenge.

Marty Estel meets Marlowe at Harriet's apartment and argues that harming Gerald would ruin his chances of collecting gambling debts.

Waxnose returns to Marlowe's apartment seeking revenge for Frisky's death and is overpowered and bound by the detective.

Marlowe deduces that Jeeter would legally inherit Gerald's trust fund under California law if the boy died without a will.

Marlowe agrees to consider Dorr's bribe offer at the mountain cabin and leaves, buying himself time to investigate.

Bernie Ohls agrees to help Marlowe after hearing that his tracked whereabouts make it impossible he killed Harger.

Miss Glenn slips away when police arrive at Dorr's home, and Marlowe surrenders the casino winnings to authorities.

Marlowe finds Peeler Mardo tortured to death in his room, the soles of his feet burned with a hot iron.

Marlowe visits Rush Madder's office and agrees to the insurance deal before Madder drugs his whiskey and Carol knocks him out.

Sunset reveals in Marlowe's hotel room that he knows Wally Sype is living in a small town called Westport.

Marlowe poses as an exotic fish buyer to gain entry to Sype's home and question the reclusive old thief.

With his dying breath, Sype whispers the clue about the Moors to his wife, hinting at where the pearls are hidden.

Al Tessilore forces his way into Marlowe's apartment to silence him and is captured after Lola jabs a gun into his back.

Marlowe visits Eugénie Kolchenko and realizes her armed companion is Frank Barsaly, Lola's unfaithful husband.

A jeweler confirms that Lola's pearl necklace is a cheap imitation, proving her dead pilot lied about the gift's value.

Each of Marlowe's four cases turns on a critical moment of revelation or deception that reframes everything that came before. In the Jeeter case, Harriet's refusal of a bribe exposes her real motive, and a point of California inheritance law gives Marlowe the key that unlocks the true killer's identity. In the Finger Man story, a morgue visit and a loyal investigator allow Marlowe to prove his innocence and build a case against Dorr before the fixer meets his end. The Goldfish investigation pivots on a dying man's cryptic whisper and Marlowe's sharp eye for two unusually heavy fish. In Red Wind, a jeweler's offhand assessment destroys any illusion about Lola's dead pilot, and Marlowe quietly chooses to protect her grief rather than expose the truth. These turning points define not just the plot of each story but the moral character of the detective at the center of them all.